Kingfishers Wilderness Assault Craft or kwac for short. Last spring I raised a sunken Fiberglass Pontoon boat (pedal powered) from our Lake. It had blown off someones lawn and because it was damaged it leaked and one side sank. I raised it and pulled it to my shore and got it out of the water,drained the leaky pontoon and took it up to my shop. I found the owner who no longer wanted it. I decided to repair it and rebuild it. The craft measures 10 feet long and 5 feet wide. It has an aluminum quadra paddle which it powered by two sets of Pedals. In its day this was a very quality fiberglass boat. Now they make cheap plastic ones that sell for about 300 bucks. I have about 120.00 into the repairs and paint. We are going to use this one for duck and goose hunting and all around pleasure and survival use. We can fish, swim and hunt from it with no gas engine. Our lake is 209 acres so its the perfect survival craft to go with our canoe and Jon Boat. Let me know how you guys like the Camo job. The bottom was repaired with fiberglass cloth and resin(4 layers) then coated with resin and sanded. Next we used an epoxy sealer coat and finished with anti fouling bottom paint which is copper based. This paint stops weeds from growing on the bottom. The Cammo paint is Rustoleum . Kingfish
If you look very carefully at the paddle wheel hump right between the front seats is a small lever. That is the rudder which steers it. You can steer from either side as it is located right between the seats. It wont turn real fast but you can reverse(pedal backwards) the paddlewheel to make it turn pretty sharp. Top speed is slow 1.5 mph maybe 2 at best. Positives are that its stable, uses no gas and can be left in the lake all summer. I am going to add sides made of cammo cloth for Goose hunting. Its going to a blast this fall shooting geese from it. Kingfish
I launched it today in the lake. So far so good. No leaks and it moves pretty good. Steers fine and was able to go right through a patch of Lily Pads with no wrap ups in the paddle wheel. It sets a little lower then I thought it would and this means that it has water in the bottom of the pedal sumps as it comes up through the drains. It could just mean Im too freaking fat. Ill be running it around this week and get some pics in the water. Then Ill pull it out and pull the drain plugs and see if there are any slow leaks into the pontoons. So far so good. Kingfish
A very neat project! If the camo matches the overall flora of the lakeside, it'll be fine. I like the idea of a 'mobile duck blind'!
Our lake is surrounded by those alder bushes and ferns. Blends in nice. The sides Im making will look like cat tails. My wife and I took it out for a spin last night. With two people on it it balanced out nice and was real easy to pedal. It needs bigger drink holders and a depth finder. We went across the shallowest part of the lake with no problem so its going to be perfect for this lake. Ill get some more pictures of it in the water today. Kingfish
I like it I like what you have done, and I am sure that you and your Mrs have a lot of fun with it. The camouflage paint scheme would help in concealing the punt somewhat, but shape, shine and silhouette will tend to give you away. Breaking up the outline / shape of the punt will help a lot. You may also wish to consider installing an electric trolling motor, to give your legs a break. Trolling motor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Concealing your punt with a superstructure that resembles a giant decoy duck may attract sight impaired wildlife to you, but it may attract the unwanted attention of sight impaired duck hunters also....so wear body armour under your personal flotation device! ; )
I have several Minnkota trolling motors and have concidered putting one on the back but we decided to keep this boat motor free like our Canoe. We have 5 boats total, this little pontoon, a 14 foot Jon boat with a 9.9 merc 2 stroke and a 36 pound thrust bow mount trolling motor. We also have a 16 foot Meyer sport pal canoe which is unsinkable due to a flotation liner and sponsons on the sides. Next up is a 1776 Starcraft Super fisherman powered by a 115 Merc 4 stroke and a 72 pound thrust 24 volt Minnkota power drive trolling motor. Last but not least we own a 24.5 foot Four Winns Vista Cruiser (cabin Cruiser) powered by a 350 Chevy inboard. I have all the motorboats I want. I am also over weight and need the exercise of pedaling this little boat around the lake. Kingfish
No need to haul fifty pounds of excess weight on that small a boat either. I'd say it's about perfect for it's intended use.
Fair comment by both you and Kingfish....I'd like to get a canoe for much the same reason of fitness, and getting some time in the fresh air and open spaces.
I fully expect gas to go higher and higher as supply gets smaller and smaller. I expect electric drive motors to be more of the norm for small boats with solar chargers keeping those batteries topped off. My purpose with this boat was to add another option to my survival plan. Our lake is full of Blue Gills and its not rocket science catching them but a boat really ups the odds for filling a pail with fish. I could just rely on the canoe which is a fine little craft for two people. In fact we fish out of that most of the time. The little pontoon is more stable and has seats with backs on them. We can also have both hands free for fishing while we use our feet for propulsion. Hunting also comes into play . Ive seen some much bigger gas motor powered Pontoon boats turned into floating Cat Tail Islands by guys for duck and goose hunting. My plan is to do that on a much smaller scale. Ill take more pictures this fall when we take her out for the first hunt. KF
Kingfish, the joke of your craft's name just hit me........ "DOH!" "KWAC" - "quack!" I am so dense sometimes.......
You wouldn't happen to have a diagram of the cooling hoses for a 350 with an OMC outdrive do you? Not much hair left to pull... Pax
I could maybe take a picture of it. We just got the boat last year and winterized it. Have not touched it yet as gas prices are high. It looks to me like most of it is all in the metal manifolds but I could be wrong. Our boat has a Cobra Outdrive. KF
The KWAC , has proven to be a very good little fishing boat. Pedaling the boat leaves both hands free to fish. My wife and I caught 4 Bass and three Pike in one hour just tossing Bass baits on the weed line a couple of days ago. All fish were released for consumption at a later date when fishing might have to feed us. So far of all my 5 boats this one is being used the most . I take it out every other evening now for little spin for exercise and little catch and release bass fishing. I was tossing the old 2 inch Jitter bug last night and had big bass blow up on it but no hooks. That was pretty cool. Not Musky but top water is fun. KF
